The Gym Wars: 10 Times Fighters Went Too Far – Part 2

‘Shogun’ Rua And Wanderlei Silva Spar At Chute Boxe

The Chute Boxe gym in Curitaba, Brazil was legendary back in the day for the wars that were reported to be taking place there practically on a daily basis between many of the top Brazilian stars at the time.

You can get a glimpse of what it must have been like here as two of their most famous products, Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua and Wanderlei Silva slug it out.

“Man, those (Chute Boxe) days were tough,” ‘Shogun’ recalled in an interview with UFC.com a couple of years ago. “But they were also great to forge us as fighters, and make us strong minded and confident, as well as aggressive and skilled.”

These days there’s a trend nowadays at certain gyms to focus less on ‘hard sparring’ due to fears that it takes too much of a toll on fighters and can affect their longevity in the sport at the highest level, but there’s no doubt that some of the most famous fighters of all-time found success via this method.